Seven of Swords: five in arms, two left standing

Five in the arms, two left in the ground: count first

Waite's description of the Seven of Swords is two short sentences: a man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly, while the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.

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BaZiFlow original Seven of Swords

On the Rider-Waite-Smith card he wears a red cap and red boots, leans forward into a long step and turns his face back over his shoulder. A bundle of blades lies in his arms, pommels up by his shoulder and blades slanting down in front of him. The other two swords stand upright at the right, beside tents and a flag. Sorted by place, the picture has three spots: the arms, the ground and the background.

What Waite lists: a plan and a confidence, then an "also"

The divinatory meanings open with a run of forward-leaning words: design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence. Then comes "also", and the list turns to quarreling, a plan that may fail, and annoyance. Waite adds his own reservation right after: the design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other.

Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance.

One thing stands out in these words: not one of them mentions anyone in the camp. Design, attempt, wish, hope and confidence all describe the mind of the one carrying the swords, while quarreling and annoyance are what the plan stirs up. The list speaks from one side only, and whoever asks the question has to supply the other.

The additional meanings, which Waite collects in Part III §4 from other readers, say: "Dark girl; a good card; it promises a country life after a competence has been secured". That is physical-appearance wording from the early 1900s. For teaching you need not use it as a label for anyone.

The camp, the stride and the five blades: who said what

The card has few details, but each one deserves a question: did Waite write it, is it seen in the picture, or was it added later?

The third column holds convenient teaching analogies. They turn the card into something you can count, and none of them is a sentence from this entry. The next section uses the first of them, the count.

How to read it: sort a venue handover into carried, left and in sight

The Seven of Swords comes with a countable structure: some items carried off, some left where they were, and a camp close by, meaning there is somewhere to cross-check. Carry that over to a small everyday matter and you get three steps for a handover sheet.

1. 1

   Count: how many out, how many left

   Do not judge yet; just count. The card's total is seven, split five and two. Take your own list and split it the same way into what has moved and what has not.

2. 2

   Match: is every destination written

   For each item that left, the sheet should name where it went and who received it. For each one left behind, it should say why. If a line is missing, add it instead of guessing.

3. 3

   Look: what does the camp say

   The word list holds only the carrier's state of mind. A camp close at hand suggests asking the nearest other party whether their records agree with your sheet.

A small example: after a neighborhood market, seven borrowed items are to be returned to the venue. Five are already on the truck and two still stand inside the hall. On the handover sheet:

Reversed and neighboring cards: from doing to saying

Waite's reversed list swaps the whole kind of word: good advice, counsel, instruction; slander, babbling. Upright circles planning and attempting; reversed circles speech, both the kind meant well and the kind meant to wound. The additional meanings add "good advice" under reversed as well, followed by "probably neglected".

When you read it reversed, the question can change to: in this matter, who is saying what to whom, and did anyone take it in? Say whose rules you are using before you turn the card.